Medford, ORA lawsuit accusing three Oregon hemp companies of wage theft and exploiting their labor is the second complaint filed against the same defendants last year.
The agricultural workers hired by WestCoast Growers LLC, Topshelf Hemp LLC and Fire Hemp LLC allege they were cheated out of their final paycheck by employer Colt Jamison Hansen. The same Defendants were accused in a lawsuit filed last year by 17 workers of wage theft occurring during roughly the same harvest season. Further, Hansen and his companies were accused of unsafe housing conditions and verbal abuse. Add to the accusations gun threats.
The lawsuit names Logan Pierce Butler and his company Pierce Farm Labor LLC, which recruited workers for Hansen's hemp growing operations. Hansen and his companies have defaulted and are no longer defending themselves in the lawsuit, according to the amended complaint, according to Law360.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Oregon Contractor Registration Act and state wage statutes. It seeks nearly $30,000 in unpaid work, lost wages and other penalties; $500 and $1,000 fines for each violation of the federal agricultural law and the state's registration statute.
The workers claim they were made to suffer a number of indignities while trimming, cleaning, and sorting industrial hemp plants, including:
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